The leaders of both sides of politics have rejected the idea of a “grand compact” between government, business and unions to put an end to industrial relations warfare.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he doesn’t support the proposal by Australian Workers’ Union head Paul Howes because negotiations about pay and conditions should occur between businesses and their employees at the grassroots level.

Earlier, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten dismissed the idea of a new accord, saying the Prime Minister was “unlikely to change his spots”.

“I don’t believe with the Abbott government that they have the slightest interest in sitting down with unions,” he told ABC radio.

Mr Howes on Wednesday ignited a debate on Australia’s industrial relations landscape when he called for a truce between unions and business, and for an end to the “bloodsport” in industrial relations.

But he’s received little support from the top, with Mr Abbott and Mr Shorten instead turning on each other.

“I can certainly work with someone like Paul Howes, the question is can Bill Shorten work with someone like Paul Howes because what Paul Howes did yesterday was essentially pull the rug from out of the Shorten scare campaign,” Mr Abbbott said on Thursday. He was campaigning in Brisbane with Liberal candidate Bill Glasson, who is hoping to win the Griffith by-election on Saturday.

“Everything the Labor Party has been doing since the election, everything they are doing now in the Griffith by-election, it’s just one big scare. And what Mr Howes did yesterday is say we’ve got to leave all that behind us, we’ve got root out the corruption and the racketeering inside the union movement.”

industrial relations ‘bloodsport’

Mr Glasson, a former president of the doctor’s union, the Australian Medical Association, said Mr Howes’ comments were “sensible and sound”.

“Whether you are an employee or an employer we want the best outcome for everybody concerned.”

Also responding to Mr Howes’ comments, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the business community did not want to get rid of the Fair Work Act. Rather, it wanted the government to “knock off some of the rough edges”.

Mr Willox acknowledged that wage growth and industrial disputes had been checked in some parts of the economy.

But in others, namely the offshore oil and gas industry and construction, unions were still pushing for unsustainable raises, he said.

“We’ve had the last iteration of the Fair Work Act which gave unions some quite excessive powers, powers that relate back into the 70s, right of entry powers, for instance, ability to come into lunchrooms almost unfettered,” Mr Willox told ABC radio on Thursday.

“That’s of great concern to business. We’re not saying completely re-write the Fair Work Act, we’re saying just knock off some of the rough edges, get it back to the sensible middle and work from there.”

He lamented the “see-sawing” of industrial relations policy that saw legislation torn down and completely rewritten each time the government changed.

Although Mr Howes offered an olive branch in describing Prime Minister Tony Abbott as “more a politician than he is an ideologue”, Mr Shorten took a harder line.

He said it was difficult to believe Mr Abbott would be interested in boosting cooperation with the union movement.

Howes ‘no wallflower’

Mr Shorten said he doubted Mr Abbott could negotiate with “a series of organisations you want to have a royal commission into”.

He also said the wages increased in the offshore oil and gas industry cited by Mr Howes were due to a lack of workers available to take those jobs, but the market would correct the situation.

“There’s been rising commodity prices and not enough tool pushers and rough-necks and crane operators and barge attendants and maritime crews to do the work. The market is going to correct some of those issues over time.”

Responding to Mr Howes’ calls for less combative public debate, Mr Willox said the AWU head was “no wallflower”.

“I haven’t noticed Paul being any sort of wallflower himself when it comes to entering the public debate, so if we’re going to try to moderate language everyone needs to do that,” he said.

“Business, government and unions, and we’d be all for that just to get some sensible outcomes.

“Yes, we are seeing some reducing wage outcomes but we’re seeing some unions – look at maritime or construction, for instance – still making quite excessive claims and putting enormous pressure on employers to grant what are really unsustainable outcomes.”

“Yes, there has been some reduction in industrial disputation but that’s been up and down depending on circumstances. We are continuing to see wage claims that are quite significant in some particular fields so we need to moderate that.”